Call to You Across the Sky
by WhatBecomesOfYou
Summary: After "Sectionals," Emma leaves McKinley and Will behind. A series of chance encounters, and allowing time to heal, changes things. Will/Emma.
1. Prologue: December

**Author's Note**: _I started writing this during the hiatus, so it's AU after "Sectionals." The prologue is short, but the remaining chapters will be a lot longer._

* * *

It had been one month, two weeks and three days since she had handed in her resignation to Figgins. After the initial shock of Will kissing her – chasing after her and actually _kissing_ her! – had worn off, it had only made her more steadfast in the fact that she believed Will needed more time to get over what Terri had done to him. As it was the middle of the school year, her job prospects were dim at best, so she was getting by on the savings she had scraped together through the years. It wasn't ideal, but it'd do until the new school year was due to begin.

It had been one month, two weeks and three days since he had kissed Emma for the first time. He still held out a thin string of hope that it was a "first" time instead of an "only" time – but with her dismissal of him and the strains of preparing the kids for regionals – more and more it seemed as if it was set to be an only time. The marriage therapy had been a disaster from the start – it was only a matter of time before one of them filed divorce papers - and he knew that as soon as he would no longer have Terri in his life, he'd seek out Emma. He had to.

-_to be continued_-


	2. Chapter One: January

Late that afternoon, Will pushed a shopping cart through Meijer. He was distracted, if only because just a short time before, the meeting he had with Terri and the marriage counselor had gone great – for Terri, that is. It looked like divorce was the only option for either of them, and more than likely, he'd be the one coming out on the other end with a few extra bruises.

Initially, it was as a figment of his imagination that he chalked the voice from behind him up to. "Will!" the voice said. "Will Schuester!"

He turned around, and for the first time in over a month and a half, he saw her: the person that Terri had ever so snidely referred to as "the other woman" in one of their previous meetings. "Emma?" He could hardly believe it was her.

* * *

A short time later, all groceries purchased and safely in their respective cars, they sat in silence at a nearby coffee shop, each one cradling a freshly brewed cup and nervously checking out the other. Emma noticed that it didn't appear as though Will had shaved in quite some time, while Will noticed that Emma's eyes were missing some of the light and sparkle he had always known them to have. Whether they cared to say the words out loud or not, they both knew that the other had changed drastically in the intervening weeks.

"How are the kids?" Emma asked, raising her cup to her lips.

"Oh, they're doing _great_," Will said, beaming at the thought. "We're preparing 'All You Need is Love' for regionals."

"Yeah?" She paused for a moment, wondering if the song choice had any sort of double meaning. "They'll do great."

"I hope so. Vocal Adrenaline is going to be tough to beat."

"If they do as well as they did at sectionals…"

"Will _you_ be at regionals?" he asked, before quickly amending the question. "Since, you know, they did so well with you there before, I mean."

She set down her cup and let out a muffled sigh. "No," she said, grabbing her purse strap and standing up. "I _won't_ be attending regionals."

"Why not? The kids would _love_ to see you cheer them on!"

"Because I don't trust myself around you," she mentally replied. However, for her actual spoken reply, it ended up wildly divergent from the truth. "I have plans that day. Out of town."

"Oh," he said, deflating slightly. "I could at least call you and let you hear them?"

She shook her head. "That wouldn't work." Stepping away from the table, she made strides toward the door.

"I'll call you with the results?" he said as she walked away. Hopefully she hadn't changed her number. He didn't see why she would have, but she had been acting strangely enough that day that it was a distinct possibility.

She hadn't changed it.

* * *

A few days later, as she ran a cleaning cloth over the artificial potted plant hanging from her living room ceiling, her phone rang. She didn't – or perhaps _couldn't _- hear the ringing over the strains of jazz trumpets flowing from her stereo. She was in her own little world and nothing could pull her out – not even a phone call from Will Schuester.

When she listened to it later, a smile flickered across her face, as she heard him say that they had narrowly defeated Vocal Adrenaline. They were going to state.

She clipped the article from the next day's Lima News that said that the New Directions Glee club from McKinley High School would be headed to the state competition in Columbus next month. Will stood in the middle of the picture that accompanied the article, flanked on either side by Rachel and Finn, with the rest of the club filling out the remainder of the frame. But in her mind's eye, Will was the only one there.

The clipping made its way from her kitchen table, to her purse, to her vanity, finally ending up in the top drawer of her nightstand next to her favorite owl-shaped clips and a small bottle of hand sanitizer. Safe and sound, and near her always - that was as much as she could ask for.

* * *

The second in their chain of unexpected encounters came in the middle of the week, when Will had to go to the post office to pick up a certified letter. And, lo and behold, standing two people in front of him was Emma, who was nervously looking around the crowded, noisy post office, a large package cradled in her arms. "Emma," he said. "Need any help with that?"

She shook her head and adjusted the position of the box. "Nope," she said, grunting softly as the box began to slip from her grasp. "I don't need your help."

He glanced at the box, which was tipping precariously to one side. "Are you _sure_?"

"Certainly."

The person standing between them glared and huffed slightly. "Can you two take this somewhere _else_?"

"Next in line!" the post office employee called out. Emma realized, that in the time it had taken for her and Will to have their conversation, she had moved forward to the front of the line. She snapped her attention forward, and walked up to the counter, turning her back on Will.

* * *

The third encounter happened less than a week later, as Emma pulled up to the BP near McKinley to fill her gas tank – it was nearly on empty, as it was, and although she knew this was the station where most of the McKinley faculty and students filled up, she figured that it was a safe bet that no one would be around this time of day, since school wouldn't be out for another hour.

She hated the smell of gas stations. Always had, ever since she was a child, but after she became consciously aware of her surroundings – and the germs that came with that awareness – she grew a new detestation for the smell. A part of her wished that she didn't have to worry about things like this, but all part of not living in a major city was the care and uptake of automobiles.

As she slid her credit card, she spotted Will out of the corner of his eye, getting out of his car at the pump next to hers. She let out a sigh. What was this, three times in less than that many weeks that the two of them crossed paths? Granted, yes, there was a time when they saw each other every day – including hanging out in the faculty lounge between classes and during lunch and dodging Sue's pointed barbs in the process. But since she had left? It wasn't as though she was seeking him out, but every time she went out anymore, it seemed like he came out of nowhere. If she wasn't careful, they'd end up going down a road she wasn't comfortable going down – yet, anyway.

Will caught her eye. "Emma," he said, with a broad smile. _That_ smile, the one that made her knees into jelly. The one she had a hard time resisting. "You left the post office in a hurry the other day."

"Yeah, uh, I had to get going. Lots of things to do, you know."

"It seems like you've been avoiding me after…"

"After sectionals?"

"Yeah. Why? We used to be such good friends, and now it's like you're afraid of seeing me."

She scooted over closer to him and placed one hand on the hood of her car, before inhaling deeply and summoning the thing she had been thinking for almost two months now, but had never said out loud. "Will, I _don't _want to be your rebound girl, and every time I see you anymore, I'm afraid that's what it's going to be."

"You're not my 'rebound girl,'" he said, shaking his head, walking over to her and placing one of his hands on top of her own. "I left Terri; we're getting a divorce – I'm on my way to the lawyer's office now to file the papers, in fact. _I'm_ moving on with my life, and I want _you_ to be a part of it."

"Yes, but you're still _married_ to her. I'm _not_ going to run around with you behind your soon-to-be-ex-wife's back just because you're not living together anymore."

"What about after the divorce is finalized?"

She felt her heart flutter just a tiny bit, but she had to keep her cool, at least for the time being. There'd be time enough for soliloquies to her mirror when she arrived back at home. "Maybe," she said, a small smile slipping across her face. "We'll see."

The two of them drove off, her driving west, him driving east – away from each other. One headed home, to hide away from the emotions she felt after the encounter. The other headed to his lawyer's office, to do what he had been intending to do for some time – set forth the proceedings to sever the last legal tie between him and Terri, serve her with the papers.

It'd be two months, one week, and five days before they'd see each other again.

-_to be continued_-


	3. Chapter Two: April

A lot can change in two months, one week, and five days. Lives can shift dramatically, sometimes being rendered completely opposite of what they were before.

Emma knew this, as she looked at her checking account online, seeing her savings being eaten up by her basic necessities. If this pace was to keep up much longer, she would be completely broke by the time the new school year started. Either she had to cut back, maybe get by on less food, or only drive her car three days a week instead of five to save on gas money, or she'd have to get a new job. It would be a _temporary _job, to be sure, at least to take her through the summer. Like a college student – she recalled her best friend working at a mall department store the summer between sophomore and junior years of college. The inherent dirtiness of dealing with the general public would have driven her _crazy_ to work there, but perhaps she was going to have to make a sacrifice.

With the divorce proceedings going along at a steady clip, although at a much slower clip than Will would have perhaps wanted, he knew that they were being thorough and ironing out all of the legalese that he couldn't quite understand. The only thing that gave him pause was wondering what Emma was up to anymore. Ever since the day at the gas station over two months before, he hadn't seen her. A part of him nearly wondered if she had moved away from Lima, started a new life in a new city without telling him. Found a new job, settled down, maybe found a new guy to fall in love with – who _couldn't_ fall in love with Emma Pillsbury, after all? It would have been him if she wasn't as keen as to waiting on the ink to dry on the divorce papers first – or, he thought miserably, if he hadn't been married to Terri at the time.

* * *

It was with this fear of losing her all together weighing heavily on his mind that he pulled up to the grocery store one afternoon – the same one that he had collided with her in all those months before – and saw an all-too-familiar redhead walking into the Body and Wash Shoppe next door. A confident stride, and as he looked closer at her hand, he could see that she was holding a piece of paper. Maybe Emma had a lot of shopping to do there.

He quickly took care of the reason he had stopped at the grocery store – he had forgotten to buy a carton of milk the day before, and had run out that morning. At least dry Cheerios were still reasonably edible, just not nearly as satisfying as drowning them in waves of milk. He stuck the carton of milk in his car, and sat down on the bench outside of the store. There was, of course, the off chance that Emma had finished her business in there and was already on her way. But, he suspected that she was still in there, and so, he waited.

"_Will_?" a familiar female voice asked. "What are you _doing_ here?" He looked up, and saw that instead of it being Emma, it was Terri.

"I could ask _you_ the same question."

"Hello? I _work_ here. This little divorce thing of ours has forced me to get _two_ jobs, Will!"

"_Here_?"

"Yes, _here_. I've been working _here_ for three weeks, remember? The lawyer said it was a good idea."

He_ did _remember, now that she mentioned it. How could he have forgotten? Her insistence on only working a few hours a day a few times a week at Sheets and Things wasn't going to be enough if she had to support herself, so they had suggested that she find a job elsewhere, to supplement her paychecks. She applied to Body and Wash Shoppe the next day, and was hired a few days later. "I remember now."

"Good. Now, I'm going to be late for my shift, so if you'll _excuse me_…" At that moment, Emma came walking out the door. Suddenly, Will felt as though he was in a very small space. On one hand, Terri was standing right there, on the other, Emma was standing right there: the woman he used to love, and the woman he currently loved, sizing each other up.

"Will," Emma said, her eyes big and round, almost like a deer in headlights. "I wasn't expecting to see _you_ here."

"I wasn't expecting to see you here either."

"None of us were expecting to see any of us anywhere, except for _me_ seeing Will in a _lawyer_'s office, thanks to you and your little _antics_," Terri said, venom rising in her voice.

"I didn't do _anything_ to your marriage, Terri."

"Oh? So explain why my soon-to-be-_ex_-husband spent the last year of our marriage mooning over you, if you weren't doing _something _to provoke it."

Emma's fingers curled into a small, delicate fist. "I _wasn't_ provoking him."

"Could have _fooled _me."

They continued to eye each other, and Will was nearly certain that Terri was two seconds away from lunging at Emma, before Terri let out a low little laugh and walked into the store, muttering something about "foolish little boys."

Emma gave Will a small, regretful smile. "I suppose I might have to work with her," Emma said, "that is, if she doesn't poison them against me first."

"She wouldn't."

She shook her head. "Yeah, she _would_, Will, and you _know_ it."

"Okay, she _would_, but you don't have to work here, you know."

"Where else could I work?"

"You _could_ come back to McKinley; the new guidance counselor is _horrible_ with the students."

"I can't," she said, her smile drooping into a frown, "that part of my life is _behind_ me now. Face it, Will, I left, I need to move on."

"It doesn't _have_ to be."

"Yes, it does," she said, her voice dropping as she walked away, "It really does."

He took note of the slump in her shoulders, and reminded himself to casually ask Terri about Emma's employment status the next time they saw each other.

It'd be almost three weeks before they'd see each other again as more than passing reflections in a store window.

-_to be continued_-


	4. Chapter Three: May

**Author's Note**: _And maybe it won't take two years for an update after this? Just a reminder that this diverged from canon after 1.13, so nothing from after that is taken into account. _

* * *

Three weeks passed.

Emma didn't get the job at the Body and Wash Shoppe. Somehow, she thought it was probably all for the best, considering her stress level would have been at all-time high levels if she had gotten the job and had to work side by side with Terri Terri, who was like a neutered version of Sue, except with a personal reason for her vicious barbs. She'd called her parents back home—"Mom, dad, can I borrow a couple thousand? I'll pay you back when I get on my feet again"—but somehow, the explanation of quitting a steady job just because she wanted to avoid seeing the man she was hopelessly in love with was insufficient. Even if she was their little Emma-bear. She'd resigned herself to the fact that she'd have to move out of Lima over the summer, or at least, move to a cheaper place that she could actually afford. Or something like that, even though she'd kept up the job search, blanketing Lima and the surrounding areas with letters and applications for any job she was even marginally qualified for. And then she got a phone call that changed everything.

Will, on the other hand, was nearly a free man, free to do what he wanted with his life, away from Terri and everything that reminded him of their marriage together. He was elated at the thought of being able to pursue the woman he wanted, but confused—the few times he had parked further from the grocery store and purposely walked past the Body and Wash Shoppe, he had seen Terri, but not Emma. And it wasn't as though Terri was entirely too forthcoming about anything regarding Emma, although she did have a mysterious smirk she would direct his way whenever the lawyers turned to their paperwork. Then, he got a phone call that changed everything. But his came after Emma's, although he didn't know that at the time.

* * *

One day in mid-May, he received a phone call from her.

"Will?" she asked, holding the phone to her ear; her voice seemed shaky and almost scared. "Is—is Terri there?"

"Em—?" he started to say, before she asked about Terri when she did, he felt his heart sink a little. "No. No, Terri's not here." He had no idea where she was. Probably at work, or maybe at home, or out running errands it didn't matter. "Do you want something?"

"Can can I see you?"

His heart leapt at the thought, but he could not be too eager, or he would more than likely scare her off completely. "Yeah," he said, in what he hoped was a cooly confident tone. "Where? Somewhere in Lima?"

"No." Her answer was crisp and clear, with not an ounce of her previous shakiness. "I don't want to see _her_"—and with that, he couldn't blame her. "There's a small cafe in Westerville, off the highway. The Soup Pot."

"You want to meet there?"

"Yes."

"When?"

"Is—is today okay?" And the shakiness was back.

"I can be there in half an hour."

"Okay. I'll be there." The phone call was disconnected and he heard only the buzzing on the other end of the line, and he was thoroughly confused but elated at the same time. Confused, because he didn't know what to think of the call and Emma's urgency, but elated, because he'd get to see her and talk to her, especially without Terri hovering in the near vicinity.

* * *

Half an hour later, he pulled into the diner parking lot, and saw Emma sitting inside her car, leaning over the steering wheel. He tapped on the window and smiled as she looked up to acknowledge him. "Hey," he said. "Told you, half an hour."

"You were right," she said, returning his smile and stepping out of the car. "Not that I thought you would have lied to me."

"No, I wouldn't have," he said, and he's being completely honest with her, because if there's one thing that Emma deserves, it's honesty.

After they sat down at a small table inside the cafe, overlooking the parking lot, she turned to the menu and thought for a moment. "I'll have the cranberry chicken salad sandwich," she said, handing the menu to the waitress.

"And I'll have the grilled turkey sandwich," Will said, handing over his menu as well and then turning to Emma. "So, you—you wanted to talk? Without Terri?"

"Yeah," she said, resting her head on her folded hands and frowning. "I—I got a phone call yesterday. A job offer."

"Oh, yeah?"

"It's in Shelbyville."

"As in—"

"Indiana? Yeah."

"Do you _want_ to take it?"

"It's not great. Just an administrative assistant job at a small company there, but—it's more than I've had since I left McKinley." She frowned. "Three hours and five minutes."

"That's _not_ an impossible distance," he said, and even as he said it, he knew how ridiculous it sounded. If they had been living two completely separate lives since December, with only a handful of interactions, and were only living ten minutes apart in the same town during that time—those three hours and five minutes between Lima and Shelbyville would _kill_ any chance they would have ever had at a romance.

"Yeah. It is." She frowned as she said it. With her reply, he was pretty sure that Emma was just a little bit psychic, or just had an insanely good ability to read him. "Unless I had a reason to stay"

"I can't force you to stay," he said. "I want you. I don't think that's a big secret. And it'd obviously be easier to be together if you were in Lima."

"But there's your divorce, and Terri, and—"

"I'm not going to force you to stay. If you want to stay, stay, but, if you ask me?"

"Yeah?"

"Take the job. If we're—if we're meant to be together, Emma, we'll find a way."

"Okay. I will." She smiled at him as their sandwiches came. She thoughtfully took a bite before continuing with her question. "Will? Can you do me a favor?"

"Yeah?"

"Call me when your divorce is final."

* * *

It was a warm day just over a week later when she loaded the last of her boxes into the small trailer she had rented for her move and pulled away from the place she had come to know as home over the past few years. Emma wouldn't admit it to anyone, but she secretly hoped that Will would have come over and tried to talk her out of it, or at least to say goodbye. But maybe their impromptu lunch at The Soup Pot was their goodbye. Maybe even their final goodbye.

She drove through the streets of Lima, winding her way from her former home to the highway that would eventually take her to Shelbyville.

"Goodbye, Lima," she whispered.

It would be one month and two days before she found herself in Lima again, but it would be less than that before she saw Will. She just didn't know it yet.

-_to be continued_-


End file.
